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So, the Ontario government released or introduced Bill 66 today in the Legislature. It does many appalling things under the guise of “opening Ontario for business”. It may open Ontario for business but it strips the public of protections for clean water, health and safety regulations for wastewater and food inspection can be bypassed, and many other things.

Check out this Twitter feed here for more details, but here’s an example of some of the overzealousness the Ford government is displaying in getting rid of “regulations”:

Bill 66 also scraps the Wireless Services Agreements Act, which requires cellphone providers to use contracts written in plain language and caps […]

The province of Ontario recently gave municipal and city councils the ability to reform their voting system. Thanks to Bill 181, municipalities now have the option of using ranked ballot for their local elections. It shouldn’t come as a total surprise that there has been resistance to change. A lot of status quo politicians out there don’t want to change a voting system (First Past The Post) that has benefitted them greatly.

The main arguments I’ve seen so far they’re giving for not wanting to change that system though is a rather silly one: its too hard for our voters!

Brampton council voted 11-0 against the idea…Brampton councillors who responded […]

One of my old university political classmates (and still a friend) Michael Taube, who once worked on the staff of Stephen Harper, has a guest op-ed column in the Star this AM, saying Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Hudak needs to resign, as he hasn’t connected with the people of Ontario, as evidenced by the byelections.

Who do you replace him with? Michael isn’t exactly sure.. he never met a Red Tory he liked – as a leader anyhow (what he defines as “red” is a larger swath of Tories then my definition; I would never place Ernie Eves in the “Red Tory” category, and even John Tory I’d classify more […]

Who said Canadian politics was boring? Premier Dalton Mcguinty of Ontario resigned yesterday, in a rather unexpected move. He has been premier of Ontario for 9 years. I’ve had my beefs with him and his government the past year or 2, but no denying that a) he did bring in a lot of good things while Premier (ie all-day kindergarten) and he also helped to bring Ontario out of the dark rule of Mike Harris and his bunch. For that especially, I am thankful.

Will he run as a federal Liberal leader? If he does, he may be that “moderate” or business-type Liberal counterweight some federal Liberals are desperately […]

It seems the publicity and protests about the treatment of marine animals at Marineland has had an effect on the provincial government in Ontario:

The provincial government plans to bring in regulations to protect captive marine mammals in Ontario, the Star has learned…Community Safety Minister Madeleine Meilleur will announce Wednesday at Queen’s Park that her ministry will conduct an extensive consultation in order to formulate new regulations, according to sources…Licensing would include both marine mammals and land animals in captivity.

Currently, anyone in Ontario can own a tiger or beluga whale in their backyard, with no restrictions or government oversight.

There has not been a lot of commentary here by me on Ontario provincial politics, but that will change, as the Ontario election draws nearer. I’m going to comment today on Conservative leader Tim Hudak apparently deciding that an “anti-green” agenda is going to win him votes and power in Ontario.

I’ve never thought the Mcguinty government’s Green Energy Act was perfect – but I certainly don’t think you should be destroying it or scrapping it. I think it makes much more sense in trying to fix any flaws – particularly when destroying it may cost millions to billions in penalties for doing so. Tim Hudak admits he isn’t aware […]

I’m venturing into provincial politics today – specifically Ontario provincial politics. It seems Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak is trying to play the populist card that his federal counterpart Harper uses as a strategy; try focus on core simple messages, and try to bypass/ignore the more complex issues that might cause problems for you. The problem is, Hudak isn’t doing it very well:

He’s for buck a beer…But on the evidently more mundane files, like health care, even Hudak doesn’t seem to know where he stands. Last week, Hudak’s office stated clearly that “if elected premier, he would not cut the health tax or Ontario’s health care budget.” …By Monday, […]

I’ve been giving it to the Premier and his Liberal government in Ontario occasionally on this blog recently, over some issues and some tactics of theirs that I disagreed with and thought were not very thought out. But, today instead of darts, I’m passing out laurels to Premier Mcguinty on his statement regarding the Tamil refugees/boat people.

He was asked about it in the context of the controversial remarks Toronto mayor candidate Rob Ford made, and this was his response, in full:

QUESTION: Premier, some comments have been made in the race for mayor that the City of Toronto should close its doors to immigrants because it has enough […]

…would you and Natural Resources Minister Donna Cansfield please stop ignoring your own government advisory council’s report on how to preserve Northern Ontario for all the interested parties concerned (environmentalists, business, First Nations) and implement it? Otherwise, what should have been a slam dunk feel-good story for your government is going to give you rather ugly publicity in a hurry (plus following the report is the right thing to do).

Signed: a slightly agnostic Ontario provincial Liberal supporter (but in no hurry to become a member, when I see stuff like this).

I’m going to have to take issue with Premier Dalton McGuinty and the Ontario government for seeming to favour one car company over all others, where it comes to this new rebate to buy “green cars”. I’m pleased that McGuinty is doing this rebate, but he needs to do it for all companies and all brands of green cars, and not trying to favour one type of green car and one specific car company. This is what the government of Ontario seems to be doing, as this Toronto Star editorial points out:

Why, for instance, is the rebate just for electric cars that are recharged by plugging them into an […]